NEPSAC sports such as baseball and lacrosse were fortunate enough to get most of their seasons played in the spring of the 2020-21 school year. Winter sports weren’t so lucky.
As the pandemic surged in the late stages of 2020, league seasons were delayed, cut short or canceled, as a slew of school- and state-imposed restrictions left teams unable to cross state lines to play games against their traditional prep games.
Things got a bit better as time wore on, but for the most part, aside from a handful of unofficial scrimmages and a heavy dose of skills sessions, typical winter activities were few and far between.
With the prep season in jeopardy as 2020 turned into 2021, many of the local prep players went to play full time on their local split-season teams — the ones they typically play for on the weekends of a normal prep campaign, like Rochester Coalition — but that was really it.
Now, almost 18 months since the last true prep hockey game took place in the days leading up to the pandemic, things are finally inching toward returning to normal as teams, players and coaches get set to gear up for the start of the winter 2021-22 campaign.
